Heart of Ice
by moonlight-soliloquy
Summary: Sesshoumaru decides to seduce Kagome as revenge towards his younger brother, whom the youkai lord thinks killed Rin. Will the seducing work, or will the Lord of the Western Lands be the one who falls in love? SessKag
1. Dreams Unsettling

Heart of Ice  
  
Disclaimer: Inuyasha is not mine!  
  
Chapter One – Dreams Unsettling  
  
He was tired, after a long hunt for the snake youkai invading his territory, and so it was only common sense that sleep should follow the hunt. Stretching languidly – the Lord of the Western Lands had a gracefulness anyone would long for – he raked his claws through his silver- white mane and turned in the direction of his tower, as he called it.  
  
Most people called it a prison, but that didn't bother him.  
  
Entering through the intricately crafted golden gates aspiring for the heavens, Sesshoumaru pushed roughly through the door and stormed up to his room, the scent of blood still lingering around him. He started towards the bed, yanking his door shut behind him, and threw himself upon the pallet.  
  
Sleep wouldn't come.  
  
The youkai lord knew why, naturally. It was his own mental defenses that refused to allow sleep to sink in. Ever since he'd woke up crying three nights ago, he refused to sink back into the darkness of slumber.  
  
It was impossible to escape, however. His moves slowed without sleep. The Sesshoumaru of before the dream would have beaten this one in six minutes of hand-to-hand combat. It was possible that even a normal youkai would be able to come close enough to draw a drop of blood.  
  
And that was not allowed, since he was well aware of the poison some demons were endowed with. The virulent substance could bring down even the mightiest of beasts.  
  
There was no help for it. Sesshoumaru sent the walls of his mind crumbling down, resigning himself to sleep, hoping fervently that no dreams would pervade his mind.  
  
His wishes were not granted.  
  
Again, he was sitting by the river next to his home. He was staring into the tranquil waters, and his reflection beckoned for him to peer closer. He did so, curious, still seeing only himself.  
  
The water shifted then, forming another face. This one was decidedly female, and he let out a small cry when he saw it. Rin's laughter seemed to sound in his ears as he gazed into her childish features. The image offered a wreath of flowers towards him, but he didn't move, lest he disturb the vision.  
  
A blur of red shot behind the unsuspecting girl. Yelling, doing anything he could, Sesshoumaru tried to warn his young charge. He knew this was just a manifestation of his mind, that Rin was long dead, but still he felt the undeniable need to protect her.  
  
Rin kept smiling and holding her blossoms. Then her smile changed, grew fixated, and before his eyes she twisted in the air and fell.  
  
The grass around her, soaked with blood.  
  
The dream Sesshoumaru peered even more closely at the water, and he saw the leering face of his foster-child's murderer clearly for the first time. He recoiled sharply, and his eyes slowly darkened to crimson, promising death to the picture in the water...  
  
Sesshoumaru sat bolt upright in bed, shivering despite the heat. Rin...the young human child he'd come to love, her persistent happiness finally winning him over. She was gone from him forever; he still remembered entering her room one day to see the diagonal gash across her white throat, to see her eyes wide in confusion.  
  
She was a child, and children think they'll never die.  
  
It wasn't as if he hadn't tried to avenge her. He was still attempting to slaughter any bloodthirsty youkai left in his territory that could inflict such a wound upon Rin. He didn't care how many he killed, as long as he caught the culprit.  
  
But this dream, this fantasy...it was exactly the same as the last, except for one difference: he'd been shown the murderer's face.  
  
"Inuyasha," the youkai lord hissed, flexing his claws, "I will find you. And when I do, you will meet the same fate as me. The one you care for most will die, and you will feel the pain before I end it by cutting out your heart!"  
  
With his prophecy settled, Sesshoumaru whirled from his room, and those who saw him would never have guessed his anger, so carefully it was concealed within his heart of ice.

* * *

"Kagome!"  
  
Tossing back her raven tresses, the teenager turned to face her friends eagerly. "Sango, Miroku! It's great to see you! Hi, Kirara!" She reached out to scratch the giant cat's ears and grinned as she felt the slight pressure on her shoulder. "Hey, Shippou."  
  
"Forgot someone, didn't you?" a surly voice inquired from a nearby tree.  
  
Kagome tsked. "Don't be foolish, Inuyasha, there's no way anyone could forget you."  
  
"What a pity," Shippou sighed mischievously from his safe perch on Kagome. He slyly waved to the fuming hanyou, but his expression soon turned to one of dismay as his 'mother' set him on the ground.  
  
"You guys, can you leave us alone for a bit? I want to talk to Inuyasha," Kagome explained.  
  
Miroku smirked. "I can just imaging what you think the word 'talk' is a synonym for."  
  
"Houshi-sama!" Sango scolded, whacking the wayward priest on his poor, abused head. "Come on, let's give the two some time alone."  
  
Inuyasha watched the remainder of the group leave before he leapt lightly to the ground. "All right, Kagome, what do you want?"  
  
Kagome smiled at him.  
  
The hanyou shivered. He knew that smile.  
  
"Inuyasha?" she asked as sweetly as she could.  
  
He shivered again. He knew that tone.  
  
"Could you possibly do me a favor?"  
  
"What favor?" he inquired suspiciously.  
  
She flashed him another dazzling smile. "Nothing much," she replied.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Couldyoupossiblyeathalfofmymathtextbook?" she requested, shoving all the words together and hoping he wouldn't understand what she was asking.  
  
Unfortunately, his hearing was more acute than most, and he blinked at her incredulously. "You want me to eat half of your math textbook?"  
  
"No, I have a reason," she explained hastily. "If you do chew through half a book, you will benefit because I will cook you three pots of ramen, and I will benefit because I can show the mutilated book to my math teacher and give her a reason why I didn't do my homework. Then the only people that won't benefit are my parents, who will have to buy me a new textbook. See?"  
  
"Ramen..."  
  
Kagome peered closely at the drooling hanyou. "So, will you do it?"  
  
"Ramen..."  
  
"Yes, we've established that fact. Now can you start eating my book?"  
  
Inuyasha snatched her textbook, bit it in half, and handed it back to her.  
  
She blinked. "Well...I suppose you could do that, too."  
  
"RAMEN..."  
  
After approximately half an hour of Kagome cooking and two minutes of Inuyasha eating, the hanyou was very satisfied and very bloated.  
  
Kagome motioned to Miroku, Sango, Kirara, and Shippou; she was well aware that they'd been hiding at the outskirts of the forest the entire time. "All right, I need your opinion on something," she said.  
  
"Whether or not Inuyasha's getting too fat for his own good?" Shippou interrupted, leaping onto Kagome's shoulder.  
  
"No," she replied pointedly. "I need to know which half of my Calculus textbook looks more chewed."  
  
The others stared at it. "Um...Kagome?" Sango ventured.  
  
"Yes?" she answered impatiently.  
  
"It's been broken cleanly in half."  
  
"It's...what? INUYASHA!" Kagome shrieked.  
  
The hanyou glared at her. "All you said was that it had to be bitten."  
  
"No, I said it had to look bitten!"  
  
"Same thing!"  
  
"No, it's not! My math teacher will assume that I took a chainsaw and vandalized this book myself! What's the point of having sharp teeth if you can't even bite a book correctly?"  
  
"My teeth are just fine, thank you very much."  
  
"Not really! Ever heard of a toothbrush, you yellow-fanged freak?"  
  
Silence. A few birds chirped.  
  
"Oh, wait, you haven't, have you?" Kagome realized.  
  
"Well...no," Miroku replied, answering for everyone.  
  
"Oh." Kagome looked rather embarrassed.  
  
Which was when the snake youkai, actually an immigrant from Sesshoumaru's lands, decided to attack, seeing that everyone near it was rather preoccupied.  
  
The first any of them knew of the attack was when the emerald-green coils threw themselves around Kagome's arms, pinning them to her sides. Ruby-red eyes, glittering like garnets, surveyed their prey tantalizingly. The hinged jaw opened to reveal rows of silver fangs, each dripping acid onto the ground, leaving sizzling patches behind.  
  
The serpent reared, lifting Kagome high into the air. She lashed out with her feet, but only succeeded in ripping off the bottom of her shoe on the snake's sharp-scaled skin. Angry at the attempt, the snake whipped its tail violently around, knocking Sango away and sweeping aside Miroku, too, as the priest tried to help the taijiya.  
  
When the tail snapped in Inuyasha's direction, however, the hanyou leapt onto the scales and began running vertically towards the youkai's head.  
  
He bounded higher, until he could see Kagome writhing. His claws cleaved through the coil easily, and Kagome was released, but the snake reformed instantly, and now Inuyasha was impeded by the terrified high-school girl clinging to his foot.  
  
"Will you get off me?" he roared impatiently.  
  
"How?" she shrieked back.  
  
Glancing down, he realized that they were fifty feet above the ground. Ok, so maybe that wasn't the best of ideas. "Can you sense a Shikon shard?"  
  
"It's in the worm's upper left fang!"  
  
Inuyasha nodded his thanks and continued leaping upwards, Kagome having crawled so that she was positioned more comfortably around his shoulders. He paused momentarily to study her words.  
  
"Kagome?" he yelled, despite the fact that the snake was being awfully distracting to the conversation.  
  
"Yeah?" she called back, the wind wreaking havoc with her silky hair.  
  
"This is a snake, not a worm!"  
  
She mumbled, "Well, it looked like a worm!"  
  
"Worms don't have teeth!" he snapped, trying to cut off the serpent's fang without getting his arm disintegrated by poison.  
  
Kagome scoffed. "And I was supposed to remember that while hanging a thousand feet of the ground and being traumatized by the experience of being swallowed?"  
  
Honestly. The girl's exaggeration was amazing, compared to her lack of imagination.  
  
Pondering on the intelligence of drawing the Tetsusaiga – he wasn't sure how well the mystical blade would fare against acid – Inuyasha slashed across the youkai's maw. A cascade of scales fell sparkling downwards.  
  
Which was when he got his brilliant, amazing idea.  
  
He grabbed hold of one of the snake's scales and wrenched it off. The beast's screech was quite satisfying to hear, and wielding the scale as his weapon, he used the sharp side to slash through the top of the snake's mouth.  
  
Along with the two main fangs, the Shikon shard spiraled out, flashing in the sunlight.  
  
Laughing, Inuyasha disposed of the rest of the youkai, soaring clear until the body thundered to the ground. Kagome snatched the jewel shard from the blood surrounding it. She smiled slightly as it melded with the other shards around her neck.  
  
"Congratulations, brother," a voice hissed from the shadows. "But if you have no qualms about slaughtering a defenseless child, surely you wouldn't care about slaying a mindless youkai."  
  
All heads turned to the tall figure wreathed in shadows.  
  
"Sesshoumaru...!" 


	2. Avenging Rin

Heart of Ice  
  
Disclaimer: Go look at the previous chapter. Not mine!  
  
Chapter Two – Avenging Rin  
  
"Indeed." The taiyoukai moved forward, his eyes flashing spasmodically from gold to crimson as he regarded his bastard half-brother. "Such an intelligent observation."  
  
"What do you want, Sesshoumaru?" the hanyou snarled, flexing his claws.  
  
He gazed steadily at the abomination before him. "I'm here to avenge her," he replied softly.  
  
"Who?"  
  
"You know perfectly well who, unless you've killed more humans than it's possible for you to count. Then again, you never could reach any numbers above six."  
  
Kagome stared at the two brothers in confusion. "I...Inuyasha doesn't kill humans, I'd know if he did."  
  
"Quiet, you foolish girl!" The uncharacteristic outburst from the stoic youkai lord unnerved her; she fell silent, casting a pensive look at Inuyasha's tense pose.  
  
Without warning, Sesshoumaru ran forwards with silver claws outstretched. The Tetsusaiga cleaved lines in the air, but the blade only hit emptiness. Soaring high above, the taiyoukai dove suddenly, and when the two parted for a moment to survey each other, a thin line of crimson marred Inuyasha's face.  
  
"I haven't killed humans," Inuyasha snapped, carelessly flicking the blood away from his wound. "Do you think I'd seriously harm a human? I mean, I'm traveling with three. You'd probably be the one to slay innocent men."  
  
"In case you hadn't noticed, I...used to travel with one as well."  
  
"And where is she now? You killed her, didn't you?"  
  
Blinding rage obscured the Lord of the Western Lands' vision. He veritably flew at his upstart brother, his claws flashing with reckless abandon, the canine jaw ripping, tearing. Clamping his own fangs on the Tetsusaiga, he ripped it out of the hanyou's hands and flung it aside, one transformed paw pinning Inuyasha to the ground.  
  
Inuyasha's eyes darkened dangerously to blood-red.  
  
"It doesn't matter now," Sesshoumaru hissed down at the changed demon, as the youkai lord slowly reverted to his normal form. "You may be a damn youkai, but you're soon going to be a dead one." His claws cut into Inuyasha's throat, drawing more beads of blood from the wounds.  
  
"Let him go or you'll die too."  
  
Sesshoumaru half-turned to stare unblinkingly at the young miko, an arrow strung upon her bow. "Impetuous brat. Drop that bow."  
  
"Hypocrite!"  
  
His claws dug deeper, aiming for the pulsing vein. "Drop it."  
  
Inuyasha writhed, suddenly lashing out with his legs. Sesshoumaru was thrown aside, the taiyoukai immediately twisting to his feet.  
  
"Out of random curiousity," Inuyasha sneered, having grasped Tetsusaiga again, "why don't you just use the Tensaiga to revive that kid of yours?"  
  
"It's broken," Sesshoumaru replied angrily.  
  
"Broken?"  
  
"Yes, broken. Even you, with your meager vocabulary, should be able to understand that." Sesshoumaru clicked his claws, testing their sharpness.  
  
"How did it break?" Kagome asked, never releasing her bow.  
  
He didn't spare her a glance. "That's none of your concern."  
  
"It's mine," Inuyasha interrupted. "You broke our father's fang..."  
  
"You do not deserve to call him your father, bastard!" Sesshoumaru's anger showed clearly in the set of his clenched jaw.  
  
"Are you implying my mother was a whore?"  
  
"Exactly." The taiyoukai clenched his fists angrily, which wasn't the best of ideas, since his claws dug into his palms.  
  
"How interesting. As fascinating as your family disputes are, however, I'm afraid I'll have to interrupt."  
  
Kagome loosed her arrow immediately, but a whisper of wind sent it thudding into a tree. "Naraku, you coward, get down here where I can see you."  
  
"I'm afraid that's impossible, since he's currently residing within his castle, watching this scene from my sister's mirror." Kagura dropped lightly to the ground, her fan shielding most of her pale face. "As for your current predicament, I'll help you solve it. Sesshoumaru, kill your half-brother now, along with everything else, and give me the jewel shards. I'll let you go in peace after that."  
  
"I don't care in particular whether you let me go in peace or not. Either way, I'll leave unscathed." Sesshoumaru's tone was amazingly icy; any colder and winter would have pervaded three months early.  
  
"Have it your way. Just remember, I had the power to destroy your father's fang."  
  
The taiyoukai's involuntary motion wasn't unnoticed by the wind youkai, whose soft laughter resonated around the clearing. "Now, let's make a deal, all of us, shall we?"  
  
Inuyasha's grip tightened on the Tetsusaiga. "Kagura, get the hell out of here."  
  
"Temper, my dear mutt. At least your brother's a purebred." She smirked nastily.  
  
"What do you want, Kagura?" Kagome's bowstring was cutting into her finger.  
  
"Nothing from you, actually, unless you're willing to hand over the jewel shards?" Her eyes scanned the miko's mutinous face. "I thought not. Lord Sesshoumaru, I must speak with you alone, far from these infidels."  
  
"Why do you presume that I would listen to your request?"  
  
Kagura smiled. "Naraku has something you lost," she replied coyly.  
  
"The Tensaiga...?"  
  
"He didn't specify." Motioning to him, Kagura drifted into the forest, and Sesshoumaru followed immediately after.

* * *

"All my lord Naraku needs is a simple task," Kagura explained, trying to find a way to phrase the task correctly so that Sesshoumaru wouldn't slay her in disgust. "It's quite easy. You merely need to convince Inuyasha's wench to...follow you around willingly, do anything she asks you to, basically to be infatuated with you."  
  
"You want me to seduce the bitch."  
  
Kagura sagged. "Well, that's a rather blunt way of putting it. But yes, that would be the general idea."  
  
To the wind youkai's surprise, the Lord of the Western Lands smiled; deviously, to be sure, but it was still a smile. "I'd be happy to."  
  
"At the end of one year, you are to bring her to Naraku's castle. Before that, and mark this well: **You are not to remove her bodily from Inuyasha's side**. All you may do is steal her heart. And she must keep all her jewel shards."  
  
He acknowledged this, his golden eyes sparkling, relishing the challenge.  
  
She nodded, not believing that he'd agreed, and pulled the feather from her dark tresses. Tossing it to the ground, she climbed up and soared away, glancing back at Sesshoumaru as she did so.  
  
And seeing him turn away from her, she found that her hatred for Naraku had just increased drastically.

* * *

It was perfect, of course. When he managed to get that girl – whatever her name was – to follow him around willingly, he would have both his revenge and his Tensaiga. It would be a beautiful day when he saw his half- brother's face when Kagome willingly followed him to her death.  
  
Sesshoumaru slipped back towards the clearing. He heard Kagome's shouting at Inuyasha, who apparently wasn't behaving too intelligently.  
  
"What do you mean you killed a child?"  
  
"It was an accident! I was trying to kill the youkai attacking the fucking child!"  
  
"Oh, and you missed _accidentally_, did you? After all, the differences between a child and a demon are _so_ subtle!"  
  
"Shut up, bitch! I only tried saving the girl because _you_ told me to help protect humans!"  
  
"Placing the blame on me? I'm not your scapegoat!"  
  
"You're just a catalyst!"  
  
"I'm surprised you know words that aren't monosyllabic, you hypocritical egotistical imbecile!"  
  
"Big words. Know what they mean?"  
  
"I do, but I'm not sure you can understand them!" Kagome snarled viciously. "I've had enough of this! I'm going home!"  
  
"Fine, and good riddance!"  
  
Storming off, Kagome was fuming too hard to notice where she was going until she ran straight into someone. She peered upwards. "Oh, um...hi, Sesshoumaru."  
  
He looked rather amused. Deciding that there was nothing else to be said, Kagome turned and resumed her walk towards the well.  
  
"Wait, wench." Shit, that was smooth. "Where do you presume you're going? I didn't give you permission to leave."  
  
The arrogant, spoiled brat. "I'm going home," Kagome retorted as calmly as she could, given the circumstances. She turned to glare at him and found that he was watching her intently.  
  
His golden eyes were tantalizing, serene, tranquil. They held the luminosity of the sun but none of its warmth. Specks of crimson, a tribute to his youkai heritage, added flames to the orbs.  
  
He stared into her sapphire eyes, pools of darkness quenching the fires in his own. She was trembling slightly – not many people could withstand his gaze – but he, too, was suddenly cold, even frightened.  
  
Pulling her gaze away, Kagome stared intently at the grass. She whirled, fleeing for the safety of the well, trying not to hear the vicious pounding of her heart. Her breaths came in gasps, loud enough to drown out Sesshoumaru's calls for her to stop.  
  
Only one thought remained predominant in her mind. 'His eyes are prettier than Inuyasha's.'  
  
Ok, so she was a really shallow girl at times. Actually, that wasn't the one thought, but that thought she was afraid of expressing, afraid of understanding.  
  
So she pushed her feelings to the back of her mind and threw herself into the well.

* * *

She landed on top of Buyo, who let out an indignant shriek. Climbing off the cat, she gave him an apologizing pat on his back and began scaling the well.  
  
"Hey, Kagome, you're back!" Souta's cheerful voice rang through the enclosure. Kagome smiled faintly at him, clambering over the side and stretching when she dropped to the ground.  
  
"Hi, Souta, what's new in the past week?"  
  
Her brother looked rather thoughtful. "Well, on Monday Eri came by with your math homework and a bit of gossip. She said that Sakura's going out with Kiyoshi. Like I care." He shrugged absently. "Hojo came by with this absolutely repulsive doll. It's really disgusting."  
  
Kagome growled at him.  
  
"He also dropped off some medicine. On Tuesday, Ayumi came this time with a note from your history teacher about a field trip that was supposed to be on Thursday. Also, Sakura broke up with Kiyoshi."  
  
Kagome blinked. "Um...great."  
  
"And Hojo came by again, this time with more medicine and a get-well card that Buyo shredded. That's a really smart cat you've got there."  
  
"Look, Souta, I know you don't like Hojo much..."  
  
"Don't like him? No, that's not it. The guy's just clueless to every hint I made. I mean, at one point I stated, 'Kagome's going out with a demon from feudal Japan' and he laughed and said, 'That's a nice imagination you've got, Souta. Tell her that I hope she's feeling better.'"  
  
"Well, common sense, brat. No one's gonna believe you."  
  
He shrugged impatiently. "Wednesday, Eri came by again without anything but gossip. Apparently, Sakura's going with Hikaru, and Kiyoshi found Akari. Hojo left 'healing gloves' for your 'poor, swollen hands' and also left some repugnant flowers that even Mom refused to touch. Buyo wouldn't eat them, either. They're rotting on the front porch."  
  
"Souta! You could have put them in water!"  
  
"Hey, I'd just taken a shower. I wasn't about to stink myself up. Anyways, Thursday was the field trip. Afterwards, all three of your crazy friends came over to say that Hikaru dumped Sakura for Kiyoshi's Akari, who decided to cheat on him! Oh, my gosh!"  
  
"Stop acting ditzy," Kagome snapped irritably. "What else?"  
  
"Er...Hojo bought some 19th century herbs for you. He says, 'I really hope these aren't poisonous. If they are, put all the blame on me.'" Souta snickered.  
  
"Where are they?"  
  
"I stuffed them in some smelly old socks. Friday, Sakura made up with Kiyoshi, and they're going 'steady', which probably means they'll dump each other in a few hours. Akari stood up Hikaru, who is apparently planning to dump her on Monday." He shrugged.  
  
"And...anything else?"  
  
"More medicine, which Grandpa thought was an evil spirit in a jar, so he smashed it out of Hojo's hands. It was really funny seeing the brown liquid spatter all over Hojo's surprised face."  
  
"Souta!"  
  
"Well, it _was_ funny." He scampered away, carrying Buyo. "Mom wants to see you, by the way."  
  
Sighing, Kagome moved towards the door of the shrine, wondering what new revelation would surprise her today.  
  
But as she walked up the steps, a picture of two golden eyes floated unbidden up into her mind.  
  
And she could not tell whose eyes they were.

* * *

Thanks, Lauren! I completely forgot about the Tensaiga! -Moonlight 


End file.
